Pages

A Message

It's rare, but sometimes I feel called to give a message, and sometimes I even get asked. Here's the planned part of a message I shared with my church on August 21st. It's not what I actually said, because what I said included about 20% of unplanned material and a few funny moments, but it is the base of the message.

Message for August 21st: A
Walk with God, David’s Life as an example, Mountaintops and Wilderness, Psalms
13

Awesome God, Creator, Redeemer, and
Holy Spirit, please enter into our hearts today. Help me to speak a message
that glorifies you, and help us all to listen to your guidance in our daily
lives. Amen.

We all have
a daily walk with God. Each day brings us new insights, new moments of joy, new
moments of sorrow, new moments of purpose, but also new moments of that contain
a feeling of unsurety. What is the purpose of each day? Does the daily routine
have meaning? Is our walk with God full of purpose, or are we just going
through the motion of putting one foot in front of the other, plodding with
weariness?

When I read
Psalms, I am often struck by the Psalmist’s ability to get to the heart of the
matter. There is struggle, there is joy, there is sorrow, there is
thankfulness, there is fear, and there is hope, there is anger and there is
bewilderment, but there is also trust and love. The Psalmists brought
everything in their lives to the Lord. They didn’t hold back the highs, the
lows, or even the muddy middles.

Let’s look
at Psalm 13:

For the
director of music. A psalm of David.

1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me
forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

(Have you ever felt like God is
hiding his face? As if His love is so quiet that He’s forgotten you? This Psalm
speaks to that fear and sorrow.)

2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts

and day after day have sorrow in my heart?

How long will my enemy triumph over me?

(There are
two ways to read this Psalm – from a historical perspective – which we’ll get
to in a few moments, or from a personal perspective. What is this Psalm saying
to me, right now? What is it saying to us? This Psalm speaks to me about the
sorrows that I’ve felt and wrestled over when I feel like the evils in this
world are overwhelming, or when I’ve listened too long to doubts that come from
the enemy of God. One of the things I love about this Psalm is that the
Psalmist may sorrow, but he doesn’t give up. Listen to what he says next.)

3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.

Give light to my eyes, or I will
sleep in death,

4 and my enemy will say, “I have
overcome him,”

and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

(The
Psalmist is directly asking God to do something, to answer. He’s pretty
demanding. He doesn’t hold back from getting to his point. And then, he ends
with trust.)

5 But I trust in your unfailing love;

my heart rejoices in your
salvation.

6 I will sing the
Lord’s praise,

for he has been good to me.

(One of the
first times I read this Psalm, I had to go back and read it again. In six
verses, we get sorrow, fear, a demand for help, and then trust and praise. By
the time we get to the end, we know this Pslamist had a close relationship with
God in his daily walk because he addresses God with all of his needs and all of
his trust. He doesn’t hold back the sorrow, but he also doesn’t hold back the
joy of knowing God’s ultimate salvation. He gives it all to God.)

Do we give
everything to God? The sorrow, the struggle, the fear, our needs and hopes, and
our trust in his salvation, our joy and praise of his goodness even in the
midst of our problems?

I know that
there are times when I give it all to God, and there are times when I stumble
to a stop in my faith walk and I just stand still, not sure if I am able to
keep trusting.

Thankfully,
God is there, even when we stumble, even when I stand still, even when my faith
is not as great as His faith. And, God gives me reason to step forward. He
speaks to me through His word, through family and through friends, through
those that encourage me to continue to walk in faith. And, I think this is true
to how God works. Let’s look briefly at the Psalmist behind the Psalm.

David had a complex life. He was a
shepherd boy, anointed to be the next King of Israel. He killed Goliath, he
played music to soothe King Saul when Saul was tormented by evil spirits, he
was pursued by King Saul when Saul wanted to kill David and assure that his
throne would pass to his son Jonathon. At the same time, Jonathon had a
covenant friendship with David.

1 Samuel 20:42New International
Version (NIV)

42 Jonathan said to David, “Go in
peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord,
saying, ‘The Lord is witness between you and me, and between your descendants
and my descendants forever.’” Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the
town.[a]

David is
lifted up by his faith, but in a time when he must flee the King’s wrath,
Jonathon vows his friendship. David is encouraged by this and his men, and he
goes into hiding. Time passes, and Saul chases David again and again, but David
waits for the Lord.

Saul and Jonathon are
killed in battle by other men, but David doesn’t rejoice. He mourns Saul as the
anointed King. He mourns Jonathon as his dear friend. Throughout all of this
struggle, we see David turn to God in prayer and inquiry. We see him trust God,
even when he’s hurting. Finally, after all of this, we get to 2 Samuel 2: 1-4

2 In the course of time, David
inquired of the Lord. “Shall I go up to one of the towns of Judah?” he asked.

The Lord said, “Go up.”

David asked, “Where shall I go?”

“To Hebron,” the Lord answered.

2 So David went up there with his two
wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 3 David
also took the men who were with him, each with his family, and they settled in
Hebron and its towns. 4 Then the men of Judah came to Hebron, and there they
anointed David king over the tribe of Judah.

But Psalm 13
was written in the midst of the struggle, and David still trusts the Lord’s
salvation and sings praise to God. David sorrowed, he wrestled, he struggled,
and he trusted, and he praised.

Getting into
the life of David, who wrote many of the Psalms, shows me God’s purpose,
direction, and trustworthiness even more than reading the Psalms by themselves.
God’s word works in us like this, I think, in our daily walk with him. We read,
we pray, we talk to friends and family, and we walk. Sometimes, we run.
Sometimes, we stumble. Sometimes, we plod along and can’t see the ground beyond
our feet, but walking in faith simply requires God’s presence, and His
faithfulness, and one step at a time, even steps with long pauses between them.
Sometimes, we need a friend like Jonathon to encourage us. Sometimes, we need
God to speak into the stillness of our hearts. Sometimes, we need to give
thanks and praise him in the middle of the struggles.

I think that
David did that. I think he praised God, even when everything looked bleak.
There is a strength that comes from thanksgiving, a closeness to God that is
hard to find in any other place than Thanksgiving. Sometimes, it’s tough to
find that thankfulness. We have to stretch out the simple things, the breath we
take, the sound of water lapping against a shore, the smell of coffee, the
smile of a friend, the brightness of an unexpected bit of color on a rainy gray
day. All of these small moments were created by God in his goodness, and we can
praise Him for those, and in praising Him for those small things, we can find
our way to praising Him for our salvation in the midst of struggle, like David
did.

Yesterday, I
took a short hike for my 45th birthday. It was only 4.5 miles and it
was marked as moderate. I thought I could handle it, but about halfway up the
hill, I wanted to give up. I had to plod along. It was hot, I’m terribly out of
shape and each step felt like an act of will-power over the inertia of tired
muscles. I could only see the ground right in front of my next slow step. If I
looked up, the steepness of the trail just seemed too much. And yet, I kept
going. I was encouraged by my husband. I kept putting one foot in front of the
other. And, I made it to the top of the incline, and then across several small
bridges over different creeks, and then down the hill. The reward was sitting
in an air-conditioned van and knowing I had finished, but also knowing that I
had taken steps towards getting in better shape. My walking days aren’t over,
both physically and spiritually. I have more steps to take, more hills to
climb, more streams to cross.

We know that
the end of our spiritual walk is God’s heaven. We have been assured of our
salvation. We walk to share His salvation with others. We walk to grow in
relationship with God. We know that we have been given streams of water to rest
by, and green grass to feed on. We know that on this spiritual walk with God,
He will fill us to overflowing so that we can share his love with our
neighbors, our friends, and even our enemies.

Psalm 23

A psalm of
David.

1 The Lord
is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me
beside quiet waters,

3 he refreshes my soul.

He guides me
along the right paths

for his name’s sake.

4 Even
though I walk

through the darkest valley,[a]

I will fear
no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and
your staff,

they comfort me.

5 You
prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint
my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

6 Surely
your goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life,

and I will
dwell in the house of the Lord

forever.

The Lord
walks with us as our shepherd, he fills our cup to overflowing with his
salvation.

No comments:

NaNoWriMo 2017

Greenling Chronicles Book 2: Ancient Truth Draft 1

Daydream, Read, and Write

Exclusive Content Newsletter

Hero Lost: Mysteries of Life and Death

Can a lost hero find redemption? Hand-picked by a panel of agents and authors, these twelve tales will take you into the heart of heroes who have fallen from grace. Join the journey and discover a hero's redemption! Available Now!